She fooled me to my face, laughed as she fooled me:
A Common woman! Cæsar! me! on the eve
Of being the ridicule of history:
My wisdom a mockery,—my insight,—to the end of time
Schoolboys to laugh at turning of my page,
The favourite tale to spice their dreary task.
Nero! and I who, when my very mother,
She who upraised me, dared to plot against me,
Scrupled not, I, for my world-reaching schemes
And absolute power, I scrupled not to hide